Possible nesting problem? (buttons in MCs)

i have a piece of code that works on buttons in the main timeline just fine and looks like this:

on (release) {button1._alpha = 0;
button2.enabled = false;
}

BUT when i try and use it on a button inside a movie-clip i get this error message:

Symbol=movieclip, Layer=content, Frame=5: Line 1: ‘;’ expected
on (release) {button1._alpha = 0;
Symbol=movieclip, Layer=content, Frame=5: Line 2: ‘;’ expected
button2.enabled = false;

What the heck does this mean? i’ve tried typing in the path to the code (writing _root.movieclip.button1) but i get the same old error message so that cant be the only problem i’m dealing with…

help help help help help

thanks